452 ACTUAL WORKING IN ORIGINAL RESEARCH. 



is not sufficient, it must be thoroughly tested. So long 

 also as our knowledge of nature is incomplete, there will 

 always remain phenomena which we cannot fully explain. 

 In order to obtain the true and complete explanation, we 

 ought to ascertain the effect of each condition, both in 

 the presence and absence of every other condition ; but as 

 the trouble is often too great, we frequently pursue the 

 more direct plan of trusting to insight ; this, however, 

 often causes us to miss some new truth or important 

 point, and especially to miss exceptional cases. Newton 

 missed the discovery of Fraunhofer's lines in this way. 

 Moreover, if we were willing to take the trouble, we could 

 not succeed, because multitudes of conditions are probably 

 unknown to us respecting the simplest physical pheno- 

 mena, and, in consequence of this, our most perfect ex- 

 planations of sueh phenomena are always very far from 

 complete. 



With regard to the publication of the explanation, 

 whilst a scientific enquirer may give an almost unlimited 

 freedom to his imagination in his study and private hypo- 

 theses, he must limit his statements to the strictest truth 

 in his conclusions and published researches, lest he may 

 propagate error; he must combine boldness in thinking 

 and experimenting with cautiousness in concluding and 

 asserting. 



Nothing, perhaps, conduces so much to damp the 

 ardour of an investigator as premature disclosure of re- 

 sults ; but when the results are disclosed by proper 

 publication, sufficient detail, both of circumstances and 

 quantities, should be explicitly stated, in order that other 

 persons may readily obtain similar effects. 



